We won't hear much of this because of other world events, but it is  happening again


One quarter of the Great Barrier Reef suffered severe bleaching this summer in the most widespread outbreak ever witnessed, according to analysis of aerial surveys of more than 1,000 individual reefs released on Tuesday.

Prof Terry Hughes, director of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, surveyed 1,036 reefs from a plane over nine days in late March. The marine park authority also had an observer on the flights.

Hughes has released maps showing severe levels of bleaching occurred in 2020 in all three sections of the reef – northern, central and southern – the first time this has happened since mass bleaching was first seen in 1998.

Some 25% of the reefs were severely bleached – meaning that more than 60% of the corals on each reef had bleached.

Hughes said previous observations had shown that bleaching at that extent leads to “high levels of mortality” of corals.

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced five mass bleaching events – 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020 – all caused by rising ocean temperatures driven by global heating.

Hughes said there probably would not be the same level of coral death in the north and central regions in 2020 as in previous years, but this was partly because previous bleaching outbreaks had killed off the less heat-tolerant species.

The 2020 bleaching was second only to 2016 for severity, Hughes said.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/07/great-barrier-reefs-third-ma...

Who cares if the GBR dissapears.
Corona Virus is more important. Trust me, its' on the News.
The GBR isn't.

Spot

Bobby. wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 3:33pm:




Exactly how fast do you think a coral reef can move?
Here's a hint, coral grows about 2cm a year

The_Barnacle wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 7:50am:



Survey from helicopter is really good to determine coral deaths.

The_Barnacle wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 7:50am:


Before you cry your tits off "Mark & Quote" causes the text to lose the highlights.

Isn't is strange how even with these “high levels of mortality”, the coral comes back. It lives.
Now JCU has got rid of that evil scientist Peter Ridd they can carry on regardless.

And off course if corals can't travel long distances that would mean the Western Australian corals would not exist.

Corals are very resilient. They have survived other "'mass extinction bleaching" events. Hundreds of millions of years.

Please note that I didn't say that Australia's corals have been around that long. Inserted purely because some like to extrapolate what is said to something they think inferred.

Bobby. wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 5:56pm:


Poor Barney. I do sympathise.

greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 6:19pm:



Nah. It happens in my laundry.

Bobby. wrote on Apr 8^th, 2020 at 5:56pm:


As i said, coral grows at 2cm a year. We arn't going to see it move south in our lifetimes, if ever